REVIEW:
City Transformation – What do we mean?
By City Transformation we are primarily talking about spiritual transformation resulting in the discipling of large populations of the city, and eventually leading to transformation of all spheres of daily life.
We are talking about winning souls, discipling them in the faith and seeing their lives transformed.
So the bottom line – City Transformation is simply the transformation of the lives of people in the city.
Why Discuss and Engage in City Transformation?
This is part of fulfilling the Great Commission in our day.
People dwell in cities and hence Cities are now an important “mission field”.
Just two hundred years ago only 3 percent of the world's population lived in cities. Today half does.
The Key To City Transformation is You!
Transformed people transform cities
Tools for City Transformation
Here are tools, resources or methods that all of us believers can use/exercise to see city transformation – that is, to see people saved and disciple, in our city.
1, Personal Lifestyle
2, Communicating The Gospel
3, Demonstrations of love and power
4, Prayer & Intercession with Fasting
5, Ground level Spiritual warfare
Last week : Transforming The Marketplace
We mentioned:
City transformation will take place when every believer engages in city transformation starting with their circle of influence
Our circle of influence encompasses at least 2 areas :
1, Our social sphere of influence – the place(s) where we spend most of our time engaging with people, i.e. the marketplace or some other “mountain”
2, Our geographic sphere of influence – the place or area where we live/reside physically
We addressed how to transform our social sphere of influence, last week.
Today, we will discuss some strategies to influence our geographic sphere of influence.
Today’s Sermon Title: Transforming Communities
Our geographic sphere of influence is the place(s) where we live/reside. Most of us spend time carrying out several activities (shopping, exercising, visiting people, eating out, etc.) within our geographic sphere of influence.
God wants us to be responsible for our cities, civil government, etc.
Jeremiah 29:4-7
4 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, to all who were carried away captive, whom I have caused to be carried away from Jerusalem to Babylon:
5 Build houses and dwell in them; plant gardens and eat their fruit.
6 Take wives and beget sons and daughters; and take wives for your sons and give your daughters to husbands, so that they may bear sons and daughters—that you may be increased there, and not diminished.
7 And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the LORD for it; for in its peace you will have peace.
God cares about wayward, sin-sick, cities. See God’s heart for Nineveh:
Jonah 1:1-2
1 Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2 "Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me."
Jonah 4:10-11
10 But the LORD said, "You have had pity on the plant for which you have not labored, nor made it grow, which came up in a night and perished in a night.
11 And should I not pity Nineveh, that great city, in which are more than one hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot discern between their right hand and their left—and much livestock?
1 Timothy 2:1-4
1 Therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men,
2 for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence.
3 For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior,
4 who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Similarly, we need to have a heart for our city and cities across our nation that desperately need the truth.
While it may not be possible for us to impact the city in its entirety due to its sheer size, each one of us can begin to affect our communities in significant ways.
Bangalore City
Bangalore is India's third most populous city and fifth-most populous urban agglomeration.
Bangalore is well known as a hub for India's information technology sector. It is among the top 10 preferred entrepreneurial locations in the world.
Pollution and other logistical and socio-economic problems.
8.5 million people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangalore
EARNINGS
Higher per capita income in the city, double the state average.
Effect of call centers, BPO, IT/ITES industries has put wealth in the hands of the young.
Bangalore employ over 35% of India's pool of 1 million IT professionals.
Despite higher per capita income within the urban district than in the rest of the State, and with significant migrant population, the number of urban poor has been on the rise and the slum settlements in the city have not been contained.
BANGALORE SLUMS
Bangalore has 862 slums from total of around 2000 slums in Karnataka. It is estimated that about 20% of Bangalore population reside in urban slums. The families living in the slum are not ready to move into the temporary shelters. 42% of the households migrated from different parts of India and 43% of the households had remained in the slums for over 10 years. The Karnataka Municipality, works to shift 300 families annually to newly constructed buildings. One third of these slum clearance projects lack basic service connections, 60% of slum dwellers lack complete water supply lines and share BWSSB water supply.
BANGALORE DRUG CULTURE
About 30% of students in Bangalore are drug addicts. This includes high school and college students, and those pursuing engineering and medical courses.
Small shops located close to reputed schools in the city peddle drugs.
Each year the number of drug addicts is growing by 15%.
Drug addiction is no longer confined to the affluent and the poor; the middle class is also under its grip
http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/report_30pct-students-in-bangalore-hooked-to-drugs_1703147
BANGALORE PUB CULTURE
Bangalore has an active night culture and is home to over 200 clubs and bars. The city is also referred to by many as the "Pub Capital of India".
BANGALORE SUICIDES
described as the suicide capital of India
In 2010, the city recorded 1,778 suicides, a good 13% of the total suicides committed that year in the country.
Suicide is rampant among students and young professionals, in the age group of 15-34 years
Experts believe migrants in the city are most vulnerable to suicidal tendencies.
At Manipal Hospital, on any given weekday, IT professionals seeking psychiatric help make for 40% of total outpatients. On Saturdays, the number climbs up to 60%.
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-09-10/bangalore/33736460_1_suicidal-tendencies-total-suicides-world-suicide-prevention-day
BANGALORE STREET KIDS, HOMELESS
"Children of the street" are homeless children who live and sleep on the streets in urban areas. They are on their own and do not have any parental supervision or care
The Indian embassy estimated 314,700 street children in cities like Bombay, Calcutta, Madras, Kanpur, Bangalore and Hyderabad and around 100,000 street children in Delhi.
http://www.childlineindia.org.in/street-children-india.htm
You may find some or all of these problems right in or around the community you live.
Ward By Ward
Bangalore has 198 Wards
Websites for more info on Bangalore wards:
http://www.bbmpelections.in/wards
http://bbmp.gov.in
You can find out online the ward you live in and the demographic and other challenges in your ward.
Form a Community/Ward Transformation Team.
Ideally Life-Groups in a particular ward can begin to take ownership for the spiritual transformation of the ward in which they meet.
So in a given ward we may have one or more “Community Transformation Teams” (CTT). This could be an existing Life-Group (ideal situation) or another team formed specifically for the purpose of community transformation of that particular ward.
The LG Leader of the CTT leader – leads this group and they collectively work towards the spiritual transformation of the community/ward.
Report back to the associate pastors (send email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.) on progress.
Thanks to bro. Joshua Pillai (APC-South) for presenting this idea of looking at Bangalore city, ward by ward, and engaging at the ward level for city transformation. We are developing upon this idea.
Four Step Process to transform your community/ward. We employ the same four step process that we discussed for the transformation of our “social sphere” of influence : EXPLORE, ENGAGE, EVANGELIZE, EQUIP
1, EXPLORE your community
‘Spy out the land’ – see what the terrain is like. Identify the challenges and the opportunities.
When God was getting His people ready to enter the land He wanted them to possess – He told them to send a few people to ‘spy out the land’ (Numbers 13:1,2).
Seek God’s mind on how you can prepare yourself for the challenges and position yourself for the opportunities that lie in your community.
So don’t be afraid to step in to those areas where God has placed you or wants you involved.
God has provided for the redemption (recovery and restoration) of all things unto Himself – including all the spheres of society.
Colossians 1:16-20
16 For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.
You are His agent, His ambassador, His minister, to see the restoration of things in your sphere (mountain) to Himself.
2, ENGAGE your community with the 5 tools we have discussed:
Satan has no legal ownership of the lives of people in your community.
3, EVANGELIZE
This means leading people into a commitment to follow the Lord Jesus Christ
Receive from the Holy Spirit strategies for evangelism for your community.
Romans 1:16 Don’t be ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ
1 Corinthians 1:21-25 The Gospel is the message of the Cross. It is the power of God and the wisdom of God.
Use methods we know:
4, EQUIP
This means empower new believers to become disciples of Jesus and to be transformation agents for the Kingdom of God in that same community. Teach them how to EXPLORE, ENGAGE, EVANGELIZE and EQUIP
Jesus told us to make disciples – baptizing them and teaching them to observe all things that He commanded us (Matthew 28:18-20).
Receive from the Holy Spirit strategies to disciple people in community: